Supreme Court Sides With Texas in Dispute With Bush Over Mexican's Death Row Case
  • President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to reopen the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.

    In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas 6-3.

    Bush was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.

    An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country's consular officials. The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation affected their cases.

    Bush, who oversaw 152 executions as Texas governor, disagreed with the decision. But he said it must be carried out by state courts because the United States had agreed to abide by the world court's rulings in such cases. The administration argued that the president's declaration is reason enough for Texas to grant Medellin a new hearing.

    Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, disagreed. Roberts said the international court decision cannot be forced upon the states.

    The president may not "establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law," Roberts said. Neither does the treaty, by itself, require individual states to take action, he said.


This has got to be a real quandry for whomod. On one hand, he's gotta be thrilled that Bush was rebuked on anything, given his level of Bush hate. On the other, Bush was fighting for the rights of an illegal immigrant and against the death penalty, two issues near and dear to whomod's heart.

Heh. I can just see whomod's brain smoking, like Nomad in that old "Star Trek" episode when faced with an internal inconsistency that fried its logic circuits.